It’s an ideal moment to buy wireless earbuds for those springtime walks and workouts. Amazon has put the Beats Fit Pro on sale for $180, or $20 off — a good value when the store previously offered a gift card in lieu of a discount. You can also buy the Beats Studio Buds for $100 (down from $150) if you’re more interested in a lower price than an abundance of features, and the Apple-branded AirPods Pro are currently discounted to $175 (normally $249).
The Beats Fit Pro remain one of Apple’s best-kept audio secrets. They offer good active noise cancellation, balanced-but-forceful bass and many of the usual Apple earbud conveniences, but in a lower-cost, potentially more comfortable design with long battery life and better Android support. And yes, you have more color choices than the typically monochromatic AirPods.
There are some compromises. You won’t find a case with wireless charging, and we found that accidental button presses were occasionally an issue. There are still a few features that are reserved for Apple device owners, too. If those aren’t problems, though, you’ll likely be happy at this price — even when the AirPods Pro are cheaper.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion: How, and more importantly, why? – 1:43
The Android 13 public beta is now live – 26:02
Dear Motorola, stop with the endless rehashes! – 39:15
Working on – 46:06
Pop culture picks – 50:04
Video livestream
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford Guests: Karissa Bell and Dan Howley Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Back in February 2021, the Perseverance rover landed on Martian soil after a seven-month journey. A cone-shaped backshell protected it while traveling in deep space and during its fiery descent, while a parachute with a secret message that says “Dare mighty things” slowed it down enough for a safe landing. Perseverance had to leave those components behind when it started roaming the planet. On April 19th, the rover’s companion helicopter, the Ingenuity, took photos of the debris left on the landing site — and now NASA has shared images showing what it looks like.
JPL’s Ian Clark said Perseverance had the best-documented landing in history so far, but Ingenuity’s photos offer a different perspective that could help ensure safer landing for future spacecraft. That includes the Mars Sample Return Lander mission, which will retrieve the samples Perseverance collects so they could be sent back to Earth for analysis. The program’s engineers were the ones who asked whether Ingenuity can take photos of the debris.
“If [the images] either reinforce that our systems worked as we think they worked or provide even one dataset of engineering information we can use for Mars Sample Return planning, it will be amazing. And if not, the pictures are still phenomenal and inspiring,” Clark explained.
In the photo above, you’ll see what remains of the backshell and the overall result of the spacecraft hitting the surface at 78 mph. NASA notes that the shell’s protective coating remains intact, and so are the suspension lines linking the shell to the parachute that’s now buried in dirt. The agency’s scientists will analyze the images over the next weeks to determine a final verdict, which will likely include information that could aid future missions.
Formula E officially unveiled its Gen3 car yesterday, ahead of this weekend’s Monaco E-Prix. There are some big power and efficiency changes coming when the new cars hit the track next season. Much of the focus on Gen3 has been the massive upgrades to performance, but the car also sports a new overall body design.
Engadget
Wheel covers are gone, making the new model more of a true open-wheel car, and there are no wings over the rear wheels. Instead, the Gen3 has two jet-like fins on the back, with the new aerodynamic shape inspired by fighter aircraft — an F-18 on wheels. Engadget’s Billy Steele went to take a look in person over in Monaco — life is hard for Mr. Steele. Check out his full report right here — with more stories on the way over the next few days.
Apologies to any listeners of The Morning Edition, Engadget’s early morning news podcast. I lost my voice over the last week, making it, well, impossible to talk into a mic. I’ll make my triumphant return to podcasting next week. I have many vocal exercises planned for the weekend.
And an operating loss of $128 million as Musk deal approaches.
As it prepares itself for the possibility of being owned by Elon Musk, Twitter revealed it overstated its user figures between 2019 and 2021. In its newest financial reports, the platform says users with multiple accounts were inadvertently counted as multiple people. The difference was apparently never more than two million either way.
Activision is rolling out its RICOCHET anti-cheat system to Call of Duty: Vanguard and has also revealed that the countermeasure punishes cheaters with “Cloaking.” In a wonderful twist, cheaters will be the ones at a disadvantage. Any detected will be unable to see or hear opponents, even their incoming bullets.
A judge ruled he can’t get out of his 2018 SEC deal.
Elon Musk won’t be able to get out of his agreement requiring oversight of his tweets about the company. A judge has rejected his request to drop the 2018 deal made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that required a company lawyer to approve any Tesla-related tweets. The judge also denied Musk’s request to block an SEC subpoena related to possible insider trading.
It can wirelessly transfer Snaps to your Snapchat.
Snap
Snap has officially revealed its first selfie drone. The pocket-sized device, called Pixy, doesn’t even have a controller. Instead, it tracks and trails you. The drone can float, orbit or follow you directly. Once you’re done, Pixy lands in your hand — which sounds adorable. Folks in the US and France can buy the $230 Pixy now.
Psyonix is announcing an updated Rocket League Formula One Fan Pack for 2022, giving players a way to unify their passions of cars bumping into one another to score points and… also that. Much like last year’s offering, you’ll get a freshly-updated F1 car model, new audio and Pirelli-branded Wheels. You’ll also be able to deck your ride out in the livery of Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, Ferrari, McLaren, McLaren Miami and AlphaTauri’s farm team, Red Bull.
The car model will be based on Rocket League’sDominus Hitbox, the same one that’s used to underpin many of its crossover models. Between May 4th and May 10th, to coincide with the Miami GP, players can drop down 1,100 credits to get the Fan Pack, and those who buy now will get two additional updates through the rest of the season thrown in for free. That includes decals for Mercedes, Haas, Williams, Aston Martin and Alpine, while the fall update will include different color variants for the Pirelli wheels.
Insider is reporting that infamous weight loss app Noom is laying off a significant number of its coaches as it shifts its strategy. The company, which presently enables users to engage in text chat with experts, will reportedly shift to a system of scheduled video calling, reducing the need for so many workers. Internal documents suggest that the people who remain will see higher workloads to cover for the departures. 180 coaches are believed to have already been let go, with a further 315 due to join them in the coming days. Individuals who take voluntary severance can expect eight weeks’ pay, although the site says that Noom will not cover the cost of unused vacation days.
Noom, which garnered $540 million in fresh venture funding in 2021 saw its business surge as a consequence of the pandemic. TechCrunch reported that the platform had earned $400 million in profit across 2020 as users flocked to its promised mix of live coaching and CBT-inspired practices. Its critics, however, believe that Noom’s unique spin on weight loss is nothing more than a standard heavily-restrictive diet, packaged in the language of wellness. In 2021, Noom branched out into mental health coaching under the banner Noom Mood.
As FastCompany outlined last year, Noom’s key metric is calorie restriction, tasking men to limit their intake to around 1,400 calories per day. (There’s a lot of debate about the proper calorie limit for weight loss, but that figure is seen as problematically low and well below what the CDC recommends.) Last year, an Outside investigation found that Noom was not tailoring its recommendations to the age, height and weight of its users, instead issuing a stock limit for the majority of participants. That same investigation found that there is little pre-screening for people who may have lived with disordered eating beforehand. Casey Johnston, who writes She’s A Beast, has also called into question Noom’s advertising practices, potentially misleading customers as to its effectiveness.
Apple announced back in February that it’s introducing changes that would make AirTags easier to find after several stories of bad actors using the tracker to stalk people came out. One of the upcoming changes it promised is adjusting the sound AirTags emit to be as loud as possible to make them “more easily findable.” Now, as MacRumors reports, the tech giant has started rolling out that capability with the device’s latest firmware update.
While Apple has published release notes to reveal what the update adds to the tracker, it didn’t mention that the company is gradually making the feature available on a staggered basis. According to the publication, only one percent of users received the update when it went out on Tuesday, but it will be delivered to 10 percent of users by May 3rd and to 25 percent by May 9th. Apple expects to complete the rollout by May 13th.
Earlier this April, Motherboard had obtained police data that included 50 cases of women receiving notifications or hearing alert sounds revealing that someone was tracking them with an AirTag. While that’s not a particularly large number, it suggests a growing number of cases wherein the trackers are being used for stalking purposes. In an effort to prevent the device from a creepy character’s tool of choice, Apple promised a handful of anti-stalking features that include showing people a warning that it’s a crime to use the device to track people. The company will also update newer iPhones’ precision finding technology to make them capable of displaying the direction and distance to an unknown AirTag.
